A Canadian woman, born with one-third of a vagina, has shared her story about her rare condition with other women.
When 23-year-old Briana Fletcher was born she had fully formed organs, except for her vagina. But, it wasn't until puberty that she found out that she was missing two-thirds of it.
She was born with MRKH (Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser) syndrome, which is a rare syndrome affecting one in 5,000 women.
It means that her vagina had formed in the correct way on the outside, but was missing the uterus and two-thirds of her vaginal canal.
She was first alerted to the situation when she never got her period during puberty.
After going to the doctor, they soon found the cause of the problem. By doing ultrasounds and MRI scans, they could determine what parts were missing. According to
The Daily Mail, she said:
"That was the first clue. The doctor attributed it to my low weight. I didn’t really feel any different. It was a bit odd when someone would ask me for a tampon or pad at school but I just said I didn’t have any on me. It didn’t really bother me."
She added:
"My gynaecologist at the time had never even seen a case before. She said she did a lot of research to even find it.
I spent a lot of time researching online after I was diagnosed but I couldn’t find anything either aside from doctor notations and PDF files."
Briana says that it doesn't affect her everyday life, but she has to be careful when it comes to having sex. She also has said that she hopes to find a way to have a child in the future, either through a surrogate or a uterus transplant.
“It is so ingrained in society that women must be mothers to feel fulfilled, but the more I looked into things the more I realised I don’t need to carry a child to be a mother.
I have the option of a possible uterus transplant, using a surrogate or adopting. I don’t feel that pregnancy equals motherhood.
Not being able to carry a child does not make you any more or any less of a woman. One in eight couples deals with infertility."
